Inc. Bloomfire Today announced $10 million in Series A funding from Austin Ventures and Redpoint Ventures and the launch of its social web application to improve team productivity. Designed to facilitate “just-in-time” learning moments that link people with knowledge to those who need it, Bloomfire initially focuses on sales teams and organizations that support them.
As the speed of business increases, traditional CRM, Learning Management Systems and training tools are struggling to keep pace. Bloomfire is taking a new approach, leveraging the viral nature of social services to help the customer-facing employees read and react in real time, so that when market conditions change, businesses can too.
Bloomfire provides a rich suite of built-in content creation tools that enable rapid authoring and sharing in all forms, from text documents to spontaneous videos. Valuable tribal knowledge, once buried in emails, phone calls and hallway conversations, is now searchable, shared and workable—on-demand or on-the-go.
“The phenomenon of social networking has changed the way we interact socially and professionally, from sharing events to reporting news, to following experts and celebrities,” said Chris Pacitti, general partner at Austin Ventures. “Bloomfire is addressing old-school productivity problems with a new-school approach, using social software to create and share valuable information within an enterprise. Essentially, it allows you to clone your best sales people, reduce costs, improve productivity and accelerate new business opportunities that drive your bottom line. “That’s right.
Bloomfire was co-founded by CEO Craig Malloy, former founder and CEO of LifeSize (acquired by Logitech); CTO Dave McCann, former vice president of global services at LifeSize; and Chief Evangelist Josh Little, former national training manager at Stryker Instruments and the original inventor of the Bloomfire application-all seasoned entrepreneurs who understand the challenges of enabling high-level training. Thousands of users across hundreds of organizations trust the company, including Bechtel, Domino’s Pizza, Stryker Instruments and LifeSize.
“There is often a learning problem behind every business problem,” Malloy said. “Bloomfire is the best way to share knowledge within a team that stimulates engagement and increases productivity. People can create and post great content, ask and answer important questions, and search and browse what they need to know right now. This learning gap is nowhere more pronounced than in sales organizations where teams can be highly dispersed and time and resources are limited. Where other solutions may take thousands of dollars and months to deploy, Bloomfire will get you up and running in minutes to help your sales and channel teams launch products more effectively and reduce the productivity ramp. The value of your Bloomfire is growing as your teams interact online and help each other. “That’s right.
Bloomfire can be initiated around any product, department, territory or other area of interest. Categories and keywords help keep content organized, and social tagging can be used to highlight the most popular themes. The application is designed to be easy to use and can be up and running in minutes. It is available from any web-based device, including PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones. A free, non-binding trial is available at
